The sun rises again on Sharjah

When Abdulrahman Bukhatir was studying in Karachi and falling in love with the game, his hero was Hanif [Mohammad]. So when he subsequently returned to the Emirates, Bukhatir naturally patronised the game among the growing population of subcontinent expatriates in numerous, smaller ways until, in 1981, came the big moment ...

Bukhatir took [Asif] Iqbal to a vast plot of land, empty of life but full of sand. It was October. "Bring me two teams," Bukhatir told Iqbal, "and everything will be up and running for March ..." On that land near the Sharjah Club ... grass was grown and an all-weather synthetic surface fixed on top of the usual cement turf. Scaffolding was set up for spectators. They were not expecting many. Iqbal used his network to pull in, essentially, the entire first teams of India and Pakistan: the Sunil Gavaskar XI and the Javed Miandad XI. On April 3, 1981 everything was ready. Nearly 8,000 came ...